THERE would seem few places more appropriate than the glorious surrounds of the Alps for Everton to start climbing their pre-season mountain in earnest.

And while Saturday’s scoreline was not as easy on the eye as the scenery, there were enough positive sights for David Moyes to be satisfied with his team’s Swiss sojourn.

The week-long training camp served to blow off the cobwebs on the available senior professionals while handing a clutch of young hopefuls the chance to stake their fledgling claims.

Moyes will lose little sleep over the eventual 1-0 defeat to FC Sion in Martigny’s quaint, picturesque Stade d’Octodure at the foot of the Swiss Alps.

Their opponents are much further down the line of their pre-season preparations, this being Sion’s seventh summer friendly ahead of their domestic campaign, which begins on Friday.

And, having ultimately been unable to call on 12 first-team members, Everton’s line-up was top-heavy with young reserves and Academy players.

Moyes believes that, overall, the hopefuls made the most of their opportunity.

"This is a good launchpad for our pre-season," he says. "It was a game that was maybe a little bit early for us, but I’m glad that I took the game on.

"We’ve trained really hard and we haven’t let up. It was perhaps a bigger shift for the senior players here because they had a bigger job, but it was great that some of the young boys discovered the level that they have to step up to.

"I think I’ve learned a bit more about some of the youngsters although we knew bits about them already."

Right-back John Irving and midfielders Jose Baxter and Jack Rodwell can be particularly pleased with their efforts.

Although still only 16 years of age, Baxter belies his youth both in physical stature and on-field composure and presence while fellow teenager Rodwell, having made his record-breaking first-team breakthrough as a 16-year-old last season, continues to show genuine signs of promise and did not look out of place in central midfield alongside skipper Phil Neville.

"We didn’t know all that much about Jose Baxter because he’s only 16 years old and has just left school, but he started and got 60 minutes and did well," adds Moyes. "Jack Rodwell we knew more about, but all the youngsters have done well."

The lengthy absentee list, added to by James Vaughan and Leighton Baines not quite ready for action and training ground injuries to Leon Osman and Andrew Johnson, handed a rare start to Andy van der Meyde.

Even rarer was the fact the Dutchman lasted the full 90 minutes. Van der Meyde applied himself well and, such was his eagerness to impress, even managed to pick up a booking for dissent. Sadly, though, it’s clear the problems of a traumatic spell at Goodison have taken their toll on the winger’s game, van der Meyde’s frustration at times evident during the game.

With Everton fielding a relatively strong defence containing international triumvirate Phil Jagielka, Joleon Lescott and Nuno Valente, there was no prospect of the visitors being steamrollered by a virtually full-strength Sion side on Saturday.

Indeed, the only time goalkeeper Iain Turner was beaten was by a goal that would have graced a much grander stage, striker Didier Cretterand bursting into the area on 58 minutes and exchanging passes with Alvaro Dominguez before finishing clinically.

Lescott showed no obvious sign of suffering any side-effects following the course of injections in his knee after the end of last season, while Valente had previously seen only one minute of senior action since February.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sion were by far the sharper during the first hour and threatened on several occasions.

An excited Kali scuffed a clear opening wide, Alvaro Saborio dragged off target and, shortly after the break, Virgile Reset struck the top of Iain Turner’s bar with a shot that deflected off Irving and, from the resulting corner, Nigerian international Obina Nwaneri sent a free header into the ground and over the bar.

Lukas Jutkiewicz, who scored in the opening pre-season game last year at Bury, struggled to make the same impact and the emergence at half-time of Kieran Agard posed more questions of the Sion defence.

Agard, an 18-year-old striker, demonstrated plenty of pace and willingness, but was betrayed by inexperience at times.

He should have converted a near-post header from Valente’s cross, and a wiser head would have looked up and spotted the square pass to the unmarked John Paul Kissock after one lightning break.

Despite having been put through a punishing schedule of three training sessions a day during their week in Switzerland, Everton actually finished the game the stronger, Eunan O’Kane busy on his late outing from the bench.

Neville struck a daisy-cutter that goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary almost made a meal of, but the search for an equaliser ultimately proved futile.

"It was a tough game for us," said Steve Round, having enjoyed his first game since being appointed as assistant manager.

"They are a decent side and are a lot further down the track than us.

"It was a good workout and the youngsters will have taken a lot from this."

Preparations for the new season will step up this week with more senior players returning from injury and extended leave.

But with Everton aiming to scale new heights both home and abroad during the forthcoming campaign, the hopefully busy schedule means this won’t be the last sight of some of those potential future stars.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Andy van der Meyde – the Dutchman made the most of a rare start to work hard for the team